A Bishop's Pride Chastised

Quid enim fratres tui omnes universalis Ecclessiae episcopi, nisi astra coeli sunt? quorum vita simul et lingua inter peccata erroresque hominum quasi inter loctis tenebras lucent. Quibus dum cupis temetipsum vocabulo elato praeponere, eorumque nomen tui comparatione calcare, quid aliud dicis, nisi: In caelo conscendam, super astra coeli exaltabo solium meum? An non universi episcopi nubes sunt, qui et verbis praedicationis pluunt, et bonorum operum luce coruscant? Quos dum vestra fraternitas despiciens, sub se premere conatur, quid aliud dicit nisi hoc, quod ab antiquo hoste dicitur: Ascendam super altitudinem nubium? Quae cuncta ego cum flens conspicio, et occulta Dei judicia pertimesco, augentur lacryme, gemitus se in meo corde non capiunt, quod ille vir sanctissimus dominus Joannes, tantae abstinentiae atque humilitatis, familiarium seductione linguarum ad tantam superbiam erupit, ut in appetitu perversi nominis illi esse conetur similis, qui dum superbe esse similis Deo voluit, etiam donatae similitudinis gratiam amisit; et ideo veram beatitudinem perdidit, quia falsam gloriam quaesivit.   Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, Registri Epistolarum, Liber V, Epistola XVIII, Ad Joannem Episcopum

What indeed are all your brethren, the bishops of the universal Church, but the stars of heaven? Those whose life and speech shine among the sins and errors of men as if amid the darkness. And when you desire to elevate yourself by a proud title and to tread down their name in comparison with yours, what do you say but ' I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will exalt my seat?' Are not all the bishops clouds, who rain with words of preaching and who flash with the light of good works? And when your Fraternity despises them, and you would try to press them down beneath yourself, what do say you but what is said by the ancient enemy, ' I will ascend above the heights of the clouds?' All these things I gaze on weeping, and shuddering at the hidden judgments of God, tears flood, and my heart cannot contain its groans, that the most holy man, the lord John, of so great abstinence and humility, has, through the seduction of familiar tongues, burst out into such a pitch of pride that he tries, in desire of that wrongful name, to be like him who, while proudly wishing to be like God, lost even the grace of the likeness granted to him, and thus true blessedness was destroyed because he sought false glory. Saint Gregory the Great, Registry of Letters, Book V, Letter 18, To the Bishop John